The Garmin Nuvi 1490T has a large display which is easier to view even from the perch located on the dashboard or the windshield of the card. It supports many nice features like the Bluetooth hands free profile, free traffic data and green and clever driving suite tools. It is a great boon to customers seeking advanced functionality as well as easy of use.
Design
The most distinct feature of the Nuvi 1490T is the large display of 5 inches. The real estate of the display is obvious when comparing it with the other units that employ only 4.3 inch display. The brightness of the screen is also slightly increased. The arms length makes it easier to press the larger buttons on the screen. The 5 inch display has the same resolution of 480 x 272 pixels that is possessed by the other displays of 4.3 inches. This renders more number of visible pixels in the display and the text is also rendered with slightly more aliasing.
The device has a glossy black colored bezel with a tiny pinhole microphone on the lower left corner. The left side of the unit houses the micro SD card slot and the top edge houses the power or the lock button. The rear side of the device is made of matte finished material. This side has the speaker and the mini USB charging port that is used for syncing too. The package of the Nuvi 1490T includes a windshield mounting suction cup bracket, an integrated FM traffic antenna, a 12 V car charger along with mini USB end, an assortment of user guides and an adhesive dashboard mounting puck.
Interface
The home screen of the Nuvi 1490T has a couple of large icons that perform the major functions of a navigation device. These are the map browsing and the location finding functions respectively. There is a status bar on the top of the screen with the icons for the strength of the GPS signal, navigation mode, status of Bluetooth, battery life and current time. The hands free setup screen opens on accessing the Bluetooth icon. The navigation modes such as bicycle, pedestrian and automobile can be selected using the navigation mode icon and the time icon opens the settings to adjust the time. This is quite unnecessary as the GPS signal itself adjusts the time automatically. The volume controls as well as the tools menu are found at the bottom of the screen. On specifying the destination, the detour options and the stop navigation options will be displayed at the bottom. This also displays the phone menu if a phone is paired with the device.
The destination can be selected either by using an address or by browsing through a set of preloaded points of interest stored in the database. The on screen QWERTY keyboard opens in order to facilitate while typing addresses and for searching. It does not have any kind of predictive key blanking and is nice to use. The list of possible predictions is displayed after a few letters are typed. The touch screen is not very responsive as it is resistive. It requires more pressing power to register them. The map screen can display both 2D and 3D maps that are readable and easy to understand. The bar on the top of the map screen displays the next turn or the current street. The bottom edge has a back button that returns back to the home screen, a sped display that opens the trip computer screen and a configurable button to display the routing data such as direction of travel, elevation, ETA, etc. The traffic icon on the left side of the map is disabled when there is no such data. It appears gray when disabled, green when the route is clear and red or yellow when there are obstructions. An estimated delay time is also displayed. There are transparent controls for zooming and an Eco Challenge score icon on the right side of the map.
EcoRoute
The EcoRoute packs a suite of tools that help the drivers to reach their destination with less usage of fuel and less carbon emission. The Eco Challenge score icon displays the score of 0-99 range. There is a leaf that changes from red color to green color as per the score. The smooth driving result in increased scores while harsh braking and fast starts produce lower scores. This score estimates the efficient driving of the vehicle. It opens a menu when active. This menu displays the preference window displaying the less fuel route along with the Off Road, Shorter Distance and Faster Time options. When this is checked, the device will provide the best route that is fuel efficient.
Traffic
The T series of the Nuvis provide a free lifetime FM with RDS traffic data. This is displayed as a list of incidents on the traffic menu, as icons on the map screen and as color overlays on the major highways. This is used for trip routing and for delivering more accurate estimated times of delay or arrival. The traffic antenna is embedded along with the 12 V power cable and this enables the reception of the traffic updates even without plugging in.
Bluetooth
The Nuvi 1490T has the Bluetooth connection and it supports hands free and phone book access profiles. It also supports the data connection when it is paired with the EcoRoute high definition module. It can be paired with a phone either from the handset or from the Nuvi’s Bluetooth menu. The Nuvi is recognized as a speaker phone after the four digit pin input. The bottom bar of the main menu displays the Phone icon. The device can download the contacts from the phone book of the paired handset in the phone book access profile. The call quality is average with the clear and loud speaker. The microphone picks up a lot of road noise along with the voice.
its a tricky issue. if you outright own the car (not financing, not leasing) laws are defintly being broken if you are unaware of the device. if you are financing and your car is owned by a bank or dealership, some laws MAY be vilated, but you would need to look at your state’s lawbook. you should ask your county’s district attorney if you feel violated.